Beyond Common Sense

And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: Genesis 5:22

Alive—living, not dead. That is a rather straightforward definition! If you are reading this, then you qualify as being alive. 😊 Throughout the Genesis genealogy, a list of names is given followed by the number of years they lived and the name of a son. “Enos lived…Cainan lived…Mahalaleel lived… Jared lived. But then there’s Enoch.  He also lived a rather short time before he begat Methuselah compared to his predecessors—sixty-five years. But more is said about Enoch.  In fact, God makes the same statement twice: 

Genesis 5:22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

Genesis 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

God does not stutter. He is emphasizing a point (probably because He knows how much we need repetition!) Enoch didn’t just live, he walked with God and it made all the difference in his life.  Somethings never change.

Matthew Henry has quite a bit to say about this, so the following is his words, but, hopefully, my outlining will make it more easily digestible.

“True religion; what is godliness,

·       but walking with God

·       which presupposes reconciliation to God,

o    for two cannot walk together except they be agreed (Am 3:3), 

o   and includes all the parts and instances of a godly, righteous, and sober life. 

·       To walk with God is to set God always before us,

·        and to act as those that are always under his eye. 

·        It is to live a life of communion with God both in ordinances and providences. 

·       It is to make God’s word our rule and his glory

·       our end in all our actions.

·        It is to make it our constant care and endeavor in every thing to please God, 

·       and nothing to offend him. 

·        It is to comply with his will,

·        to concur with his designs, 

·       and to be workers together with him.

·        It is to be followers of him as dear children.

The ungodly and profane are 

·       without God in the world,

·        they walk contrary to him.”

THAT is a tall order, and yet, it becomes possible if our focus is on Christ. It is living out Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Matthew Henry sums it up this way:

“He [Enoch] was entirely dead to this world, and did not only walk after God, as all good men do, but he walked with God, as if he were in heaven already.  He lived above the rate, not only of other men, but of other saints: not only good in bad times, but the best in good times.”

Can we live this way?  Absolutely, and so much more so “as we see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). Jesus tells us that as his second coming draws near, the days will be much like Noah’s day, and Noah was Enoch’s great grandfather!

  Luke 17:26 “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man.”

Just one chapter later, God records this: Genesis 6:5 “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Sound familiar?

Take the challenge for 2021. Do more than just live—walk with God. You’ll never regret it.

Here’s one last encouragement:

Walking with God pleases God. We cannot walk with God so as to please him except by faith. God himself will put honor upon those that by faith walk with him so as to please him. He will own them now, and witness for them before angels and men at the great day.  Those that have not this testimony before the translation, yet shall have it afterward (Matthew Henry).